The body recovered floating in the water off Broad Beach in Malibu on September 9 has been identified as Braden Pontoli, a 36-year-old composer and choral singer active in Southern California. Investigators with the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s Office confirmed the recovery off Broad Beach around 3:30 p.m. that day.
Pontoli had been reported missing the day before, on September 8, after telling loved ones he was headed to an in-person interview in Santa Monica, according to friends cited by the New York Post. But subsequent reporting revealed the prospective employer had never actually scheduled or extended an interview with him, according to NTD, leaving the stated reason for his trip unverified and his actual whereabouts that morning unclear.
His blue 2019 Nissan Kicks, the vehicle missing-person flyers had asked the public to help locate by its license plate, was later found parked inside a public parking garage in downtown Santa Monica, according to Malibu.FM. How Pontoli traveled from that garage to the waters off Broad Beach remains unaccounted for.
A Voice Known Across LA’s Choral Stages
Pontoli was raised in Beaver, Pennsylvania, and attended Baldwin Wallace University before working as a middle school choir director in Ohio. He relocated to Los Angeles in 2018 to pursue advanced music composition and later graduated from the California Institute of the Arts, according to Voyage LA Magazine…